Aboriginal Languages

The Australian Aboriginal languages comprise up to twenty-seven language families and isolates native to the Australian Aboriginal people of Australia and a few nearby islands, but by convention excluding the languages of Tasmania and the eastern Torres Strait Island languages. The relationships between these languages are not clear at present, although substantial progress has been made in recent decades.

In the late 18th century, there were between 350 and 750 distinct Aboriginal social groupings, and a similar number of languages or dialects. At the start of the 21st century, fewer than 150 Indigenous languages remainin daily use, and all except roughly 20 are highly endangered. Of those that survive, only 10% are being learned by children and those languages are usually located in the most isolated areas. For example, of the 5 least endangered Western Australian Aboriginal languages, 4 belong to the Ngaanyatjarra grouping of the Central and Great Victoria Desert. Yolŋu languages from north-east Arnhem Land are also currently learned by children. Bilingual education is being used successfully in some communities. Seven of the most widely spoken Australian languages, such as Warlpiri and Tiwi, retain between 1,000 and 3,000 speakers. Some Aboriginal communities and linguists show support for learning programs either for language revival proper or for only "post-vernacular maintenance" (teaching Indigenous Australians some words and concepts related to the lost language).

The Tasmanian people were nearly eradicated early in Australia's colonial history, and their languages were lost before much was recorded. Tasmania was separated from the mainland at the end of the last ice age, and the Tasmanian Aborigines apparently remained isolated from the outside world for around 10,000 years. Too little is known of their languages for classification, though they seem to have had phonological similarities with languages of the mainland.

Adynyamathanha

This language has been known by many names and variants of names, including:

The Alyawarr are Australian Aboriginal people , or language group from the Northern Territory. In 1980 the Alyawarre made a land claim with the Wakaya people, which was handed back to them on 22 October 1992. The Utopia community, 250 km north east of Alice Springs, in Central Australia was set up in 1927, is partly on Alyawarre land, partly on land of the Anmatyerre.

Children who were born in Papunya and Haasts Bluff grew up speaking a new variety of Pintupi, now known as Pintupi-Luritja, due to their close contact with speakers of Arrernte, Warlpiri and other varieties of the WDL. This has continued through the moves west so that most Pintupi people today speak Pintupi-Luritja, although there remains a clear distinction between the more western and eastern varieties.

(This map is only here to provide a very general idea of the location)

Anmatyerre

The Anmatyerr region covers a large section of Central Australia approximately 100 km north of Alice Springs, the major township in Central Australia. Communities located within the region include Nturiya (Old Ti Tree Station), Pmara Jutunta (6 Mile), Willowra, Laramba (Napperby Station), Alyuen and the rural township of Ti Tree.

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